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Everything here represents my own opinion unless clearly stated otherwise. I do this on my personal time for my own satisfaction. Nothing should be construed as specific advice as you have to pay for advice that goes beyond generalizations.

EMC World 2011: Rules of the Road

Another year, another EMC World. There are a few things I am tracking that promises to make this year interesting. I can’t really share yet, but trust me, you’ll want to stay tuned.

We are still a week away, but it is going to be an incredibly busy week for me, so I want to get this out now. For those that are unfamiliar, I pretty much type notes at every sessions and hit publish at the end of the session, essentially sharing my session notes with you. These rules are very similar to last years Rules (I even cut-and-paste for a draft), but I’ve updated a bit as I do every year.

All “live” posts that follow these rules will start EMC World 2011:. This is to clearly identify them for everyone. If I write a post before/during/after the conference that doesn’t adhere to what I am laying-out here, it won’t have that prefix.

Disclaimers

I’m going to be running a basic disclaimer in all my posts. If for some reason I forget to paste it in, this disclaimer applies to all EMC World 2011: prefixed posts and you can be sure I’ll be adding the disclaimer as soon as I notice that it is missing. This is because I will be writing the posts during/after sessions and I will hear things that I may misconstrue or that talk about future events.

All information in this post was gathered from the presenters and presentation. It does not reflect my opinion unless clearly indicated (Italics in parenthesis). Any errors are most likely from my misunderstanding a statement or imperfectly recording the information. Updates to correct information are reflected in red, but will not be otherwise indicated.

All statements about the future of EMC products and strategy are subject to change at any time due to a large variety of factors.

As indicated, if I learn later that something I posted was incorrect, I will endeavor to correct it, but it may not be immediate.

Topics of Conversation

As a general rule, if I, or the person I am talking to at the time, has a beverage in their hand, I’m not blogging/tweeting it. If it is blatantly clear that the information is public, I will share it in a constructed post during, or shortly after, EMC World.

The issue here is that I am a longtime partner of EMC/Documentum. As such, I am sometimes privy to information that is not made available to the general public. This information is used to serve my clients better. If I started sharing this information, then I would no longer be able to learn any of it in the future. That information is by far more important any benefit that I may gain by posting it here.

This is a fun little line that I have to walk, but I think I’ve walked it well. There are several EMC personnel that have shared information with me since I started this blog and subsequently tweeting. I have, to date, kept all confidences and will continue to do so in the future.

Twitter

I will be using Twitter some during EMC World. You can follow me at @piewords. You can also follow all the Momentum 2011 action at #mmtm and all of the EMC World action at #emcworld.

Most information will be going here, into my blog. Random thoughts and where I am going (in my annual quest to maintain my caffeine levels) will be mostly through Twitter. If you don’t have my phone number to text me, your best bet to locate me at EMC World will be through Twitter.

The Time Delay

I am a busy person at the conference. As such, not all posts will be tagged immediately as I will be focusing on getting them posted and moving to the next session. Have no fear, the tags will come.

I will also be updating my EMC World page of links only once every day. While it is a good index of what I have written, it will not be definitive until after the conference is over and I have time to update it. I will try and add links from other blogs, but that is also time dependent.

18 thoughts on “EMC World 2011: Rules of the Road”

I have read your postings (blogs) now for awhile and at times I believe you have tried to appear objective but many times (such as during EMC World) you appear very biased in your reporting in favor of EMC IIG’s marketing/sales messaging. As you know, IIG has not been doing well in the EMC market for about 2 years and they keep spinning that XCP is “new” and doing very well in the ECM industry. To my best recollection, you have not reported once that EMC IIG’s XCP framework is NOT ‘new” and is in fact XCP is about 2 years old. Indeed, XCP is just a rebranding of several of their ECM products bundled together. I (and I am sure many others) would love to see you report candidly and factually the ‘real’ story of how EMC IIG is doing and what XCP really is and that it is indeed not a “new” framework of products (regardless of the messaging hype) ! However, I am sure that the EMC IIG Marketing folks will “spin, spin, spin” with you (just like they have done big time with the likes of Lee Smith. Of course, Lee has always had a $$$$ incentive to report/blog in favor of EMC IIG).

Jake, sorry if you got that impression. I’ve never been a rah-rah xCP person. As to bias, did you catch last year’s wrap-up post from EMC World, Vision, Strategy, Tactics…1 out of 3 for EMC? Pretty sure that post wasn’t overly biased in their favor.

Keep in mind that in my notes, I am just recording notes of what is said. I save my opinions for subsequent pieces.

Oh, and I challenge you to find a post that I wrote where I actually say that xCP is great. Notes-posts do not count as I am just recording what is said. In fact, you’d have a hard time finding any post on xCP. You are correct that xCP is not new, though it is a bundling of some of their “newer” products (it is all relative). That said, they are working hard to make it different than the starting products. That isn’t from the marketing, that is from my direct experience with watching those products evolve over the past few years. They have a much longer way to go though.

Laurence, you wrote that you are basically reporting on what you record at the sessions …. the real value you could add is to record but add your commentary with your ‘notes-posts’.

Furthermore, please elaborate on how xCP is a “bundling of some of their ‘newer’ products. If you really looked under the covers (and got away from the IIG Marketing slides and from A. Chapman like-folks), you would better understand that the products you refer to are not really new products but newer versions of the products. And, please explain to me how xCP is a competitive advantage for IIG vs. what IBM-FileNet has …

Finally, my issue with Bloggers like yourselves is that you appear (again, my opinion of course) to be in ‘mild tone’ in drinking the vendor’s koolaid. EMC IIG has been losing it’s relvancy in the ECM market space and their answer is to bring in former FileNet folks hoping that infusion will somehow ‘spark’ their sales. What is going on in the ECM world is that it’s become a mature market and IIG has put weak leadership in place whereas at this time they need ‘A’ players, not rehashed FileNet folks. In addition, I’d really love for you of all people to explain what you believe their STRATEGY is for 2011 … come on, you can do it !

Jake, in regards to the Notes posts. I literally hit post as I leave the session. Don’t have time for much commentary because I am rushing to the next thing. I write posts after the conference with my analysis of key thoughts. Generally, I like to collect information from multiple sources before I start commenting in too much detail. I want to get beyond the marketing before I start making too many judgments.

Addressing xCP, TaskSpace was new with 6.0. The Process Engine suite of products was acquired and integrated into Documentum around the same timeframe. The configuration model based upon Forms Builder, the model is real and not marketing, is something that really came into shape with the xCP bundling. Remember, “xCP” arrived with 6.5 two years ago. At that time, it was a pure bundle. Since then, it has begun evolving into a more integrated offering, though it isn’t there yet.

As for your other thoughts, you need to take a step back and read a lot of my posts, starting with the one in my previous comment. I have focused on their strategy and other aspects quite a bit. While I have a bias towards Documentum, 11 years with a product will do that, that is to the product. I definitely do not drink the Kool-Aid. Long-time readers will vouch.

I’m not sure that I’ve been accused of feeding people “the Cool-aid” before, I usually get into trouble for *not* doing that. I’m going to take a screenshot of this comment thread to prove that I’m a good corporate citizen!

Jake – willing to share whether you work for a customer, partner or competitor? Don’t need to name names, just wondering…

Mr. Pie,
I’ve been reading your blog since 4th april (practically since the beginning of my documentum adventure) and I’ve found it quite informative.
A little question about this blog entry: I’m new to the documentum world so it might something well-known from veterans, but w/e..
Do momentum conference has an online counterpart? Like saved online session of the various part of the event? Or some reduced-version for online usage? I’m quite intrigued by some of the session that should be held in the event but given I’m a junior resource at documentum and I live in Italy (quite distant from Las Vegas) I doubt my company would be willing to spend money for sending me there before say 1 year..
Thanks in advance,
Vito

Vito, they have changed their approach every year, but they post/link to a lot of content online. They even appear to be planning to post recordings of many/most of their sessions. Here are a couple of links:

So Laurence, according to your timeline on xCP, it is not a “new” framework. Good, we agree on that at least. As I wrote prior, it’s a bundling of existing documentum products and they changed the name from a TCM suite to then Case Management then to xCP. I still would love to hear you explain how/why xCP is better or creates a competitive advantage vs. what IBM has and/or what is IIG’s strategy since they are still utilizing a product stack that is over 3 years old . Please understand that IBM, Oracle, even Pega for that matter markets “rapid application” dev. with an integrated platform.

Finally, I think it’s fair that you admit that you have a “bias” towards EMC IIG. As I have written before, it shows. Which means your “blogging” is bent towards EMC IIG … the good news is there are other ECM bloggers out there that don’t have a “bias” (thank God). I am a long time reader and that is my opinion.

btw: The ‘Process Engine’ was not acquired during the 6.0 release. I am not sure who told you that but that is incorrect information.

Regarding Andrew Chapman’s question and comments to me, I’ll pass. Most folks I know perceive you as a marketing guy as do I and I fully understand that you and Laurence are buddies. (take that in any form you wish).

Can’t we at least keep it civil?
Anyway since seemingly you pose yourself as someone that knows his stuff and have a critical view on xcp…
I’m debated at the momenth whether learning xcp might be worthwhile or not.. At the moment I can use webtop/da, customize webtop (I’ve build a skin-thin client from scratch, but it’s far from webtop at the moment)..
So basically I’ve covered da&webtop guide, wdk guide (more or less), a bit of dfc/dfs (haven’t read the whole guides, rather i picked pieces when I needed ’em, since anyway I was kinda familiar with webtop implementation for I ripped it literally apart when learning the trade), dql, and that’s about it..
It’s worth learning usage/customization of xcp? Or I could better spend my time learning something completely different, but in the emc2 world all the same (say captiva for example)..
Thanks in advance to anybody answering

Jake, everyone is biased. If you can’t see the bias, odds are you share the author’s bias. The acquisition I refer to was ProActivity, 2006. D6 was released the following year and it was the 1st release that started to integrate it into the product line.

Vito, if you want to keep with the EMC product line and your projects are process focused, xCP is valuable to learn. It is faster to modify than traditional WDK customization and the lack of code for most changes handles upgrades better. If you focus on Collaboration, DAM, XML, or basic DM/RM, you can survive without it. EMC as a company or tech isn’t going anywhere in the short-term so no rush to change tech if you are doing well. Jury is out on the long-term.

Pie, you just keep digging (old saying when in a ditch, quit digging). Sir, your summary statement that ‘everyone is bias’ is a non sequitur regarding the topic at hand. Anyway, you have admitted your ‘bias’ so just leave it at that. I got it. I believe you !!! Your postings about EMC IIG clearly shows that. Finally, I am glad that you did a little more research wih your EMC IIG contacts to learn that the ‘Process Engine’ (back to your former statement) was not correct. Yes, it was ProActivity that was acquired and not the Process Engine … Documentum already had that product.

Finally, my main complaint about xCP is that EMC IIG has messaging out there that it’s a “new” platform. It clearly is not. I am still waiting for Pie to answer my question about the competitive advantage of xCP over what IBM has, Oracle, etc. (My guess Pie will simply go to A. Chapman or someone else in IIG Marketing and get their Marketing Competitie BS). This has become so predictable ! LOL

EMC renamed the ProActivity tools upon integration. It was more than just the Process Engine, but that is the part you called-out. The old Documentum workflow still exists in the core product, but Process Engine is a separate add-on. At this point, 5 years later, I am sure that there has been considerable blending of the technologies.

Jake, you are clearly biased as well, I suspect towards FileNet but that isn’t 100% clear. I am closing discussion on the post. If you want to debate further, start a blog and link back to this post. We can discuss it that way. Let people know who you are and what your background so that your biases are clear.

One last tidbit, I am not doing a comparison of the products because I do not have enough direct experience to do a direct compare/contrast. Since I don’t say EMC has the best tools or say negative things about the FileNet or Oracle suite of tools, the lack of the comparison on my blog is irrelevant. Besides, every product is ideal for someone. I blog what I know. I know EMC’s products, so I talk about them. I am publicly critical of EMC when they deserve it. When they do something right, I say so.

Lastly, if you don’t get value from my posts, or think they are too biased, stop reading.